CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) — Parts
of the world saw a rare celestial event on Tuesday when the Earth's
shadow fell across the moon, turning it orange.

The lunar eclipse unfolded over three hours beginning at
about 2 a.m. EDT, when the moon began moving into Earth's
shadow. A little more than an hour later, the moon could be seen
eclipsed and bathed in an orange, red or brown glow.

Depending on local weather conditions, the eclipse was visible
across a swath of the United States.

Viewers from Florida to California and beyond went to viewing
parties and social media and other websites to gawk and share
photos of the so-called "blood moon".

A small crowd of stargazers who gathered on a roadside north of
Los Angeles saw a sliver of still-illuminated moon and a reddish
shadow cast across the lunar orb.

Others who were not so lucky took to Twitter to complain about
cloud cover in New Jersey and Pittsburgh. An image of
rain-streaked windows under impenetrable Atlanta skies could be
seen. In the Pacific Northwest city of Seattle the skies were
equally overcast.

The eclipse also was visible from Australia, New Zealand and all
of the Americas.

Precise coloring depends primarily on the amount of volcanic ash
and other aerosols floating in the atmosphere, SpaceWeather.com
reports.

The celestial show was over by over by 5:30 a.m. EDT, NASA said
on Twitter.

Eclipses occur two or three times per year when the sun, Earth
and the full moon line up so that the moon passes through
Earth's shadow.

Tuesday's eclipse will be the last full lunar eclipse visible
from the United States until 2019, NASA said.